transitive verb
-·leased′, -·leas′ing- to set free, as from confinement, duty, work, etc.
- to let go or let loose: to release an arrow
- to grant freedom from a tax, penalty, obligation, etc.
- to set free from pain, cares, etc.; relieve
- to permit to be issued, shown, published, broadcast, etc.; put into circulation
- Law to give up or surrender to someone else (a claim, right, etc.)
Origin of release
Middle English relesen from Old French relaisser from Classical Latin relaxare: see relax- a setting free or being set free; deliverance; liberation
- a freeing or being freed from a tax, obligation, etc.
- a relief from pain, cares, etc.
- relief from emotional tension through a spontaneous, uninhibited expression of an emotion
- a document authorizing release, as from an obligation, from prison, etc.
- the act of letting loose something caught, held in position, etc.
- a device to release a catch, etc., as for starting or stopping a machine
- the act of releasing a book, film, news story, etc. to the public
- the book, film, news story, etc. released
- Music
- the act or method of ending a tone
- the third group of eight measures in a common form of 32-bar chorus, as in a popular tune, which supplies a bridge between repetitions of the melody
- Law
- a giving up or surrender to someone else, as of a claim or right
- the document by which this is done; quitclaim
